I’m Trying HaloScan

I’m trying to shift over to haloscan for comments to DefendTheWest. This will facilitate comments by all the throngs of potential commenters out there.

Let’s see if it works!

How To Count

Counted for Franken

The Board that is doing the recount of the recount of the recount for the Minnesota Senate seat counted the above pictured ballot for Franken. This is one of many available examples of contested ballots. In my opinion, this ballot should be thrown out.

A broader look at this particular ballot shows other scribbles in the margin that are arguably not aligned with any bubble. This is a reason to disallow ballots like this other than attempting to divine the intent of the margin scribbler.

To be fair, a survey accross many ballots demonstrates that voter stupidity, incompetence, or innebreation occur on both sides of the aisle. However, some of the presumed Democrat voters’ ballots are a little more entertaining.

The greater concern is that if the electorate is unable to operate a pencil, what does that say about their ability to begin to comprehend the magnitude of what it is when they are voting, let alone gain at least a novice understanding of an issue.

Sunday Afternoon Art

A Venice Street

A place in the Western world I would like to visit again. Venice is truly picturesque in a way that only an Old World location can be. A new coat of paint on anything there would ruin it!

Theme Changes

I am experimenting with some adjustments to the visual theme. Do not be too put-off if it looks kinda’ kooky.

Freeze or Broil, Choose Your Hysteria

Ice Spike

Help! We are going to freeze to death! (Oops, that was the last time the sky was falling)

When I was in gradeschool, a few years ago, what was not yet known as the “Environmental Movement” was threatening that we better clean up our act, or else!

The “or else” back then was the return of The Ice Age. How ironic, 30-(ish) years ago, the “experts” were telling us we had better stop “polluting” or suffer a torturous death by freezing to death or by being crushed to by an enormous glacier that would suddenly appear on the horizon and then overtake us. At least this is the image that was implanted in my mind - a result of the rhetoric, my naivety, and the embellishment that took place in my young, do-gooder mind.

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A Compendium of Straight Talk

This article by Ben Shapiro has been out there for a few weeks, but it is worth mentioning here because it is a quick and useful summary of the situation in the long battle between Islam and everybody else.

Here is a teaser:

Enough with the psychoanalysis. They don’t hate us because of Israel. They don’t hate us because of Kashmir. They don’t hate us because we have troops in Saudi Arabia or because we deposed Saddam Hussein. They don’t hate us because of Britney Spears. They hate us because we are infidels, and because we don’t plan on surrendering or providing them material aid in their war of aggressive expansion.

An Inside View

Here is a new video as part of the dialog about the issues of the day.

To a non-Muslim, this video will seem to be an apologetic for Islam. However, it is meant to speak to Muslims and perhaps gently point out some of the immoral aspects of Mohammad’s example.

To understand how the masked Mohammad contradicts the accepted text of Islam, the viewer must be somewhat versed in what that text says. Otherwise, the viewer may get the impression that Mohammad is a gentle and flexible character in history (not the case).

A more complete commentary of the video exists at Gates of Vienna.

Middle-East Dynamics

Although we have 24/7 ad nosium news channels, much goes on in the world that we never hear about. Really?

Posted over at Powerline is a credible report that some “stable” mid-east, Arab governments are cautioning Isreal and the US with regard to their growing chuminess toward Hamas. Based on the usual high-contrast view we form from the “news” that we do get, this report seems beyond belief. However, based on other datapoints, to include personal insights of some middle-eastern friends of mine, such inputs from these Arab governments are very plausible.

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Wilders on The Threat

An excerpt from Geert Wilders’ remarks at an counter-jihad conference in Jerusalem:

Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel, Islamic imperialism would have found other places to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Therefore, the war against Israel is not a war against Israel. It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Thanks to Israeli parents who see their children go off to join the army and lie awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and have pleasant dreams, unaware of the dangers looming.

…

Our Western principles are hollow if they are not accompanied by a desire to sustain our culture and our civilization, based upon knowing who we are and where we come from. We are not from Saudi-Arabia. We are not from Iran. We come from Rome, Athens and Jerusalem. That makes our civilization special, and certainly worth preserving.

Here is the video:

and

Does he say anything that is not nearly self-evident?

Read the whole thing at Atlas Shrugs.

Some Humility Could Go a Long Way

Heidelberg Street Scene 2007

I had the pleasure of visiting some European cities last summer and came home with quite a collection of photos. The image above was a moment of The Ugly American. Even though we don’t know the nationality of the subject of the photo, many would assume that he is from the U.S.A.

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